


lucky ones

by milkdaze (flowerstems)



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 23:28:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9041822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerstems/pseuds/milkdaze
Summary: They get caught on a supply run. They weren’t careless, they just should have known. After all this time, they should have-





	

**Author's Note:**

> "warmth" and "cuddling" (and zero holiday cheer i'm so sorry) written for michonniez @ tumblr for the sns-xmas-2016. hope you enjoy it & happy holidays!

They get caught on a supply run. Without the adrenaline, the fear, the hope that today would be a little easier than every other day clouding their judgement—it seems so obvious: the area was too clear for a convenience store. The front was too clear for a store in what used to be a city but the back had just enough walkers for them to convince themselves that most of the walkers had wandered off to other buildings. Maybe it was all right for the two of them to try to clear out this building, surely it had _something_. The camp needs food, _needs_ medicine, even a tube of antiseptic and a bag of chips would be enough. They weren’t careless, they just should have known. After all this time, they should have-

 

Still, they were careful, they were alert. They cut down the few walkers near the back of the store and Sasuke skewers any walkers that got too close while Naruto fills the duffel with anything that still seemed useful. Every creak is a warning and the first groan that is too close to his right has Naruto spinning on his heel, drawn knife sinking deep into the rot of a walker’s neck. He cuts its head off, gore splattering onto the floor, disgusting as all hell, and he slings the bag of what he’d managed to salvage over his shoulder. They press themselves back to back and Sasuke hisses under his breath as Naruto’s concealed gun digs into his spine, but the pain is nothing compared to the shock of being surrounded. This isn’t the first time they’ve been cornered by walkers. It won’t be the last, if they’re lucky.

 

The worst thing about walkers is their persistence—maybe it’s because they’re already dead, there’s nothing left for them (to lose)—they climb over the shelves and each other, tearing themselves apart for a chance to grab at living flesh. It’s terrifying, it’ll always be terrifying. No matter how many Sasuke cuts down, no matter how many Naruto carves up, no matter how many they crush and bury they just keep coming.

 

Usually, they can fight their way out then get the fuck out of dodge, but five walkers become ten, fifteen—fighting becomes impossible. Fighting becomes pointless. Sasuke holds off as many as he can, slashing rotting bodies and pushing shelves and boxes onto the walkers, no time to think about it, while Naruto clears a path for them all the way to the storeroom.

 

They barricade themselves in the storeroom, kill two half-dead walkers trapped under crates, and they decide to wait it out. Waiting is always the hardest part. It could take minutes, hours, _days_. Naruto doesn’t know how long he can keep this up, even though he’s the one always telling everyone _don’t give up, we have a chance_. Every day, whatever chance of survival they have seems to move farther out of reach, like a dream.

 

Naruto is tired. He moves off muscle memory; they all do. Maybe.

 

It’s almost quiet if you know how to filter out the sickly groaning, the incessant banging on the door, the shifting of the crates and the shelf jammed up against the door. Naruto lets himself slide down the wall across the room, eyes fixed on the door because he’s waiting for it to be broken down. He’s just waiting, always ready to spring to his feet and go down swinging.

 

“There’s a window behind the cupboard in the corner,” Sasuke looks at the door and frowns, eyes skittering back and forth, between Naruto and their barricade. Their shitty, unstable barricade; the only thing separating them from a horde of walkers. Sasuke looks the way Naruto feels. “Looks like it’s our way out.”

 

“Fantastic. Love squeezing out windows.”

 

“It’s a clear shot to the bike, but it’s getting dark out.”

 

“So we’re stuck here, is what you’re saying,” it’s less of a question and more of a complaint. Naruto doesn’t enjoy their camp’s living conditions, but he prefers it to a cold, shitty storeroom with walkers trying to break the door off its hinges.

 

“Get comfy.” Sasuke sits beside Naruto, propping his sword against the wall while Naruto loads his gun. The silencer isn’t attached and Sasuke gives Naruto a look.

 

“If they break through it won’t matter how noisy I am.”

 

“We could still make a run for it.”

 

“You think we’d make it?”

 

Sasuke doesn’t say anything, just looks away, so Naruto checks the barrel of the gun and figures the conversation is over, figures he has a bullet for himself and Sasuke if they really can’t escape. They won’t die slowly. They won’t turn.

 

“You’re the one always going on about not giving up.”

 

Naruto lowers his gun; Sasuke still isn’t looking at him. It’s hard to stop himself from grinning, “I didn’t think you listened.”

 

Sasuke clicks his tongue. “Hard to ignore you when you’re so loud all the time.”

 

“Touché.” Naruto fixes the silencer onto the barrel of his gun and the barricade shakes violently.

 

It gets colder before the banging dies down. The groaning lingers, sneaks past the door, past the barricade, and crawls under their skin. So much for sleeping tonight. Naruto feels his teeth start chattering, that annoying, painful _clack clack clack_ and Sasuke unties the sash wrapped around his waist.

 

“Wait, why are you taking off your skirt. Aren’t you cold?” Sasuke looks so righteously annoyed in that second Naruto would almost say it’s worth freezing to death over.

 

“Just shut up and pull this over you,” Sasuke says, even though he shakes open the cloth and all but drapes it over Naruto. There are some bloodstains on it, fingerprints and smears from when they were surrounded.

 

Their fingers brush and Sasuke’s fingers are as cold as his. Naruto pulls it up to his shoulders, “What about you?”

 

Sasuke shrugs, letting his head fall back against the wall. “It’s not big enough for two.”

 

“We can share-”

 

“No.”

 

“C’mon, don’t be like that.” Naruto lifts a corner of the sash, scoots closer, and Sasuke huffs in annoyance. Neither of them move away. “We share things all the time, this is nothing.”

 

“I don’t feel like it.”

 

“Come o—n.”

 

“No.”

 

“If you don’t want it then I don’t want it.”

 

“But you’re _freezing_.”

 

“And what, Sasuke, you’re not?”

 

Sasuke eyes him with a half-hearted sneer but when all Naruto does is scoot even closer, still holding up the makeshift blanket, Sasuke sighs and presses into Naruto’s side, tucking the cloth over his shoulder. “There. Happy?”

 

“Very,” Naruto grins briefly, satisfied, then starts wiggling as he tries to get comfortable, carefree smile betrayed by the way his eyes remain trained on the barricade.

 

But, see, even with the groaning and the banging, both of which are quieter after so long, what really gets Sasuke is the wiggling. Naruto and his wiggling. “Can’t you sit still for five seconds?”

 

“I’m trying to get comfortable! We’re going to be here all night.”

 

And all night crawls by as a slow, cold beat interrupted by instinctual fear. Every relaxing moment, every call of sleep, is torn from them by something falling off the shelf and breaking, by a crate toppling over from the barricade—they have to jam it back into place before the entire barricade collapses. The groaning remains even after the banging dies down to an intermittent thud.

 

The barricade miraculously holds up but maybe it’s because they’ve decided to hold the barricade up themselves. Even though they shake every time the door shakes, they lean against the crates stubbornly and hold the blanket close; Sasuke cradles Naruto’s head with his arm and Naruto lodges his arm between a crate and Sasuke’s waist because he’s taking the chance while it’s there.

 

The sunlight inches across the wall in the corner of the room and that’s how dawn announces its arrival. Sasuke stares at the light, weighs the pros and cons of staying pressed up to Naruto’s warmth a little more as Naruto dozes to his side, head bouncing as he tries to stay awake. It’ll be so easy to do what he wants but Sasuke pulls himself away—it’s better they live for another day than die because of indulgence. He grabs his sword and the duffel before pushing the cupboard away from the window and the sound of it draws the groaning closer. The banging starts anew, both door and barricade shaking violently; Naruto impulsively jumps away from it, grabbing his gun, his knife, and helping Sasuke push the cupboard aside.

 

The window is small, almost frighteningly so. It’s a little glass rectangle in the wall and Naruto wonders if they can squeeze through, if they’ll really be killed in a goddamned storeroom, while Sasuke uses the sheath of his sword to break the glass. Sasuke steps aside, gestures to the window with a sneer, and Naruto shoots down the few walkers outside.

 

All clear and the barricade finally crashes to the floor.

 

“Naruto, you first.” Naruto almost stops to argue but the door won’t hold, not anymore, so he climbs out the window quickly, cutting himself on shards of glass stuck in the window frame and scattered outside the store. The duffel bag is shoved out and Naruto grabs it, scrambling to his feet to make way for Sasuke. He’s supposed to be getting the motorcycle ready right _now_ but it takes two seconds too long for Sasuke to lift himself out the window. A chill runs through his bones and Naruto almost doubles over at the thought of Sasuke not making it out, not making it-

 

Then Sasuke’s catching himself on glass shards and screaming at Naruto to fucking run already.

 

The walkers are shoving each other, trying to squeeze themselves through the window, and Naruto tosses the bag to Sasuke over the motorcycle so he can get it started. It feels like everything will go horribly wrong but Sasuke slides into the seat behind him, presses in close, and they drive off before the walkers get to them.

 

They’re halfway back to the camp when Sasuke shouts over the rush of wind, “You froze back there. What happened?”

 

Instead of responding Naruto speeds up, turns a corner too sharply, but Sasuke presses again so Naruto lies, “Just wondered how Itachi would kill me if I went back without you.”

 

“Think I’d die that easily?” The annoyance in Sasuke’s voice is evident even through the howl of the wind, but Naruto can’t think of a way to say _yes_ and _we can die anytime_ and _we’ve both almost died too many times_ fast enough. Honestly enough—in a way that will make Sasuke understand. It’s always been hard to make Sasuke understand him. “Don’t be a dumbass.”

 

It’s just that Naruto isn’t sure what’s worse: the thought of Sasuke dying or the thought of not wanting to live with Sasuke’s death. Naruto doesn’t think he’d be able to go on. He doesn’t say that because Sasuke would probably scoff, probably tear into him, probably say _you’d be just fine, eventually_. Naruto doesn’t want to hear any of that, “Guess you’re right.”

 

The wind rushing past them stings with the morning coldness and every corner they turn pushes Sasuke away with the swing of it, but he presses himself against Naruto’s back each time. Sasuke’s fingers feel cold through his shirt but he’s so warm at every point of contact. He smells of blood and the stale air of the storeroom and he’s the only thing keeping Naruto warm through the entire ride.


End file.
